6 ms·

Agreed. The 2015 Mazda3 we just bought has a horrible info/nav system that crashes and frequently stops responding. I'm guessing the actual chance of it ever be

by tthayer 11y ago

Agreed. The 2015 Mazda3 we just bought has a horrible info/nav system that crashes and frequently stops responding. I'm guessing the actual chance of it ever being fixed at 0%. Tesla's get an automatic OTA update that would fix that kind of thing and it wouldn't be something you'd have to 'deal' with for the rest of your ownership of the vehicle.

mackey 11y ago
I have been researching mazdas (CX-5) lately and they do get updates to the info/nav system. I think I read there is a crashing problem in v.51 or something, but its fixed in v.55. Not the same as tesla, but better than others.
- mikeash 11y ago
  Are those updates over the air, or do you need to take it to a dealer to apply them?
  - briHass 11y ago
    They're done over USB. The system will look for specially named firmware files (*.up) and auto-apply. This forum: http://mazda3revolution.com/forums/2014-mazda-3-skyactiv-audio-electronics/ http://mazda3revolution.com/forums/2014-mazda-3-skyactiv-aud... has some excellent info, and someone usually posts the new FW files. I've done an upgrade and the hacks myself.
    - mikeash 11y ago
      Nice. Not quite as convenient as Tesla, but it's great that they give you the ability to do it yourself.
  - tthayer 11y ago
    It looks like OTA updates will be available in the future, but who knows if 'older' models will get that feature.
coldpie 11y ago
I will never buy a vehicle with both an infotainment system and a steering wheel. Subaru lost a sale of a brand new car when the dealer sat down, turned the key, and the radio showed.... a loading bar. Fuck that. I deal with shitty software enough everywhere else in my life. I'm not going to put up with that in a 4000lb piece of metal going 70 MPH.
- j-b 11y ago
  So, did you end up buying a different vehicle? If so, which one?
  - semi-extrinsic 11y ago
    With the OP's requirements I'd recommend a '94 Volvo 240 Turbo. (If we ever need a second car I'm getting one; my first car was one). New enough to be safe (airbags etc), some tinkering will get you 300 bhp, it's rear-wheel drive and has a perfect 50-50 weight distribution if you move the battery to the trunk (standard rally trick). Stereo still has a cassette player, so a $5 adapter lets you plug in your phone for music. There's not a touch control in sight, the ergonomics are well thought through, and it even has a crude form of dual zone AC. Sure, it's more expensive in gas money, but when you factor in the reduced depreciation that's peanuts.
    - justizin 11y ago
      > Sure, it's more expensive in gas money, but when you factor in the reduced depreciation that's peanuts. What a disappointing attitude to have toward fuel consumption in 2015. :/
      - sokoloff 11y ago
        What would you have him do with a functional but old car otherwise? Crushing a car that is functional and building a new modern car to replace it takes a little north of 125 Gigajoules of energy. An older functional car may be better for the planet than destroying and replacing it.
fossuser 11y ago
My friend has a Mazda3 and we hacked on it over the weekend to make the infotainment system a little bit better. Check this out: http://www.mazda3hacks.com/doku.php http://www.mazda3hacks.com/doku.php You can turn off the annoying restrictions, change the ordering of some menus and drastically reduce the time of the starting confirmation dialogue box. All you need is a USB to Ethernet adaptor. Also make sure to disable watchdog or you can get into a reboot loop that makes it difficult to ssh back in and fix (we almost thought we'd have to bring it into the dealer, but we were able to get out of it with some script on that forum).
- tthayer 11y ago
  Thanks for pointing me to that. I had no idea that stuff existed!
  - fossuser 11y ago
    No worries - if you have any questions about the hacks let me know.
- fencepost 11y ago
  My predecessor to the Mazda3 (Protege5) was my second Mazda and convinced me that it would likely be my last because over at least a 6 year period Mazda didn't manage to figure out "polish" in cars. The P5 and predecessor Protege were fun to drive, worked OK, etc. but both were their high-end trimlines and my experiences with the two cars gave me the feeling that Mazda was prone to leaving out stupid really cheap stuff that would have drastically improved the feel/experience of the vehicles. The examples that still jump out at me are: * a front passenger door with no internal power lock switch - using the key on the outside you could lock/unlock everything, but from the inside passenger seat you had to lean over to hit the switch on the driver's door. Likely manufacturing cost savings? Maybe $5 including labor? I'd be surprised if the switch and wires would have cost more than $1 at car manufacturer volumes. * trunk carpeting that was basically nylon felt placed on top of a smooth plastic spare tire cover - not attached anywhere, just sitting there where anything on it would just cause the whole piece of carpet to slide all over the trunk. My fix was 5 hook sides of wide adhesive-backed industrial Velcro. Worked for years with no problem, cost if done at the factory? Probably less than $0.50, but it might have cut into the options of selling aftermarket trunk liners so maybe it was intentional. * cupholders that were not in fact deep enough to retain any cup, can or bottle commonly sold in US convenience stores during a turn. Make a sporty little car with a stiffened suspension, put in a 5-speed manual, then require that drivers going through curves at speed or turns without a full stop have to hold any beverages in the cupholders or have them go flying underfoot. The cars themselves were fine for 100-135k miles each and there were workarounds I could put in place for everything, but stupid little crap like that still makes me feel like if they don't care enough to take cheap steps like that then what more expensive things are they skipping?
nogridbag 11y ago
I wonder what's taking so long for automakers to adopt technologies like android auto. If I have to have an infotainment screen, I just want a dumb screen that I can dock a variety of different phones to.
lentil 11y ago
It might get fixed. I just (last week) got a letter in the mail from Mazda saying there's a software update available for the info/nav in my Mazda3. Haven't had a chance to take it in yet to get the update applied, but I'm hoping that it will fix some of the issues I've seen. Of course maybe your car is new enough that you already have that software version, in which case mine might be about to get worse... :)
nhumrich 11y ago
I have had the mazda3 model since it first came out in 2014. They actually do release updates from time to time. The only unfortunate thing is you have to go to the dealer to update. (However the system is completely hackable, and you can update it yourself and even add your own apps http://www.mazda3hacks.com/ http://www.mazda3hacks.com/) Mazda has said that in 2016 all cars with this infotainment system will get an upgrade to android auto/apple equivalent.

by tthayer 11y ago

mackey 11y ago

I have been researching mazdas (CX-5) lately and they do get updates to the info/nav system. I think I read there is a crashing problem in v.51 or something, but its fixed in v.55. Not the same as tesla, but better than others.

mikeash 11y ago
Are those updates over the air, or do you need to take it to a dealer to apply them?
- briHass 11y ago
  They're done over USB. The system will look for specially named firmware files (*.up) and auto-apply. This forum: http://mazda3revolution.com/forums/2014-mazda-3-skyactiv-audio-electronics/ http://mazda3revolution.com/forums/2014-mazda-3-skyactiv-aud... has some excellent info, and someone usually posts the new FW files. I've done an upgrade and the hacks myself.
  - mikeash 11y ago
    Nice. Not quite as convenient as Tesla, but it's great that they give you the ability to do it yourself.
- tthayer 11y ago
  It looks like OTA updates will be available in the future, but who knows if 'older' models will get that feature.

coldpie 11y ago

I will never buy a vehicle with both an infotainment system and a steering wheel. Subaru lost a sale of a brand new car when the dealer sat down, turned the key, and the radio showed.... a loading bar. Fuck that. I deal with shitty software enough everywhere else in my life. I'm not going to put up with that in a 4000lb piece of metal going 70 MPH.

j-b 11y ago
So, did you end up buying a different vehicle? If so, which one?
- semi-extrinsic 11y ago
  With the OP's requirements I'd recommend a '94 Volvo 240 Turbo. (If we ever need a second car I'm getting one; my first car was one). New enough to be safe (airbags etc), some tinkering will get you 300 bhp, it's rear-wheel drive and has a perfect 50-50 weight distribution if you move the battery to the trunk (standard rally trick). Stereo still has a cassette player, so a $5 adapter lets you plug in your phone for music. There's not a touch control in sight, the ergonomics are well thought through, and it even has a crude form of dual zone AC. Sure, it's more expensive in gas money, but when you factor in the reduced depreciation that's peanuts.
  - justizin 11y ago
    > Sure, it's more expensive in gas money, but when you factor in the reduced depreciation that's peanuts. What a disappointing attitude to have toward fuel consumption in 2015. :/
    - sokoloff 11y ago
      What would you have him do with a functional but old car otherwise? Crushing a car that is functional and building a new modern car to replace it takes a little north of 125 Gigajoules of energy. An older functional car may be better for the planet than destroying and replacing it.

fossuser 11y ago

My friend has a Mazda3 and we hacked on it over the weekend to make the infotainment system a little bit better. Check this out: http://www.mazda3hacks.com/doku.php http://www.mazda3hacks.com/doku.php You can turn off the annoying restrictions, change the ordering of some menus and drastically reduce the time of the starting confirmation dialogue box. All you need is a USB to Ethernet adaptor. Also make sure to disable watchdog or you can get into a reboot loop that makes it difficult to ssh back in and fix (we almost thought we'd have to bring it into the dealer, but we were able to get out of it with some script on that forum).

tthayer 11y ago
Thanks for pointing me to that. I had no idea that stuff existed!
- fossuser 11y ago
  No worries - if you have any questions about the hacks let me know.
fencepost 11y ago
My predecessor to the Mazda3 (Protege5) was my second Mazda and convinced me that it would likely be my last because over at least a 6 year period Mazda didn't manage to figure out "polish" in cars. The P5 and predecessor Protege were fun to drive, worked OK, etc. but both were their high-end trimlines and my experiences with the two cars gave me the feeling that Mazda was prone to leaving out stupid really cheap stuff that would have drastically improved the feel/experience of the vehicles. The examples that still jump out at me are: * a front passenger door with no internal power lock switch - using the key on the outside you could lock/unlock everything, but from the inside passenger seat you had to lean over to hit the switch on the driver's door. Likely manufacturing cost savings? Maybe $5 including labor? I'd be surprised if the switch and wires would have cost more than $1 at car manufacturer volumes. * trunk carpeting that was basically nylon felt placed on top of a smooth plastic spare tire cover - not attached anywhere, just sitting there where anything on it would just cause the whole piece of carpet to slide all over the trunk. My fix was 5 hook sides of wide adhesive-backed industrial Velcro. Worked for years with no problem, cost if done at the factory? Probably less than $0.50, but it might have cut into the options of selling aftermarket trunk liners so maybe it was intentional. * cupholders that were not in fact deep enough to retain any cup, can or bottle commonly sold in US convenience stores during a turn. Make a sporty little car with a stiffened suspension, put in a 5-speed manual, then require that drivers going through curves at speed or turns without a full stop have to hold any beverages in the cupholders or have them go flying underfoot. The cars themselves were fine for 100-135k miles each and there were workarounds I could put in place for everything, but stupid little crap like that still makes me feel like if they don't care enough to take cheap steps like that then what more expensive things are they skipping?

nogridbag 11y ago

I wonder what's taking so long for automakers to adopt technologies like android auto. If I have to have an infotainment screen, I just want a dumb screen that I can dock a variety of different phones to.

lentil 11y ago

It might get fixed. I just (last week) got a letter in the mail from Mazda saying there's a software update available for the info/nav in my Mazda3. Haven't had a chance to take it in yet to get the update applied, but I'm hoping that it will fix some of the issues I've seen. Of course maybe your car is new enough that you already have that software version, in which case mine might be about to get worse... :)

nhumrich 11y ago

I have had the mazda3 model since it first came out in 2014. They actually do release updates from time to time. The only unfortunate thing is you have to go to the dealer to update. (However the system is completely hackable, and you can update it yourself and even add your own apps http://www.mazda3hacks.com/ http://www.mazda3hacks.com/) Mazda has said that in 2016 all cars with this infotainment system will get an upgrade to android auto/apple equivalent.